The Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board voted unanimously against recommending clemency on Wednesday for death row inmate Raymond Eugene Johnson.
A Tulsa County judge sentenced Johnson, 52, to death in 2009 for torturing and killing Brooke Whitaker, 24, and her 7-month-old daughter, Kya, in 2007. Johnson showed up at Whitaker’s house after she returned home from work in the early morning hours of June 23, 2007. He beat Whitaker with a claw hammer until her brain was exposed, according to state prosecutors. Johnson kept Whitaker alive for six hours, during which she remained conscious and begged for help, prosecutors said. Prosecutors said Johnson grabbed a gasoline can and doused the mother and child with gasoline and set them on fire while they were both still alive.
Firefighters found Whitaker under her daughter’s bunk bed. They attempted resuscitation, but could not keep her heart beating. She was pronounced dead at the hospital. First responders mistook Kya for a baby doll because of her severe burns. Her mouth, eyelids, and nose were melted shut. Prosecutors said Kya died from her burns, not smoke inhalation, making her death extremely painful.
“This case is different because it involves torture,” prosecutors with the Oklahoma Attorney General’s Office wrote in their evidence packet that’s given to the board members.
Whitaker and Johnson had started dating after his release from prison, after he was convicted of manslaughter in Cleveland County for fatally shooting Clarence Oliver in 1995. He received a 20-year prison sentence but served only nine. Johnson abused Whitaker during their relationship, and he repeatedly threatened to kill her, according to the Attorney General’s office. She filed a protective order against Johnson in April 2007. He had been out of prison for less than two years when he killed Whitaker and her daughter.
Whitaker left behind three other children, who were with their fathers during the murders.
In a victim impact letter, Whitaker’s oldest daughter, Logan Kleck, told board members she is continuously reminded of her mother and sisters’ murders. Executing Johnson wouldn’t bring her mom or sister back, but it would end two painful decades of legal proceedings in his case.
Alyssa Redfearn, Whitaker’s second daughter, appeared but didn’t speak. Instead, she had a family member read her statement.
“I never deserved this. My sisters never deserved this, and my brother never deserved this, and my mom never deserved this,” Redfearn said in her statement. “I’m 24, but here today as that five-year-old little girl begging you not to grant clemency to Raymond Johnson. Don’t let him have this too.”
Johnson faced the board and apologized to Whitaker’s family for murdering their loved one. He said he knew how close the family was because he was “once entrusted in their circle.”
He also told the board he wanted to spare them the pain of court proceedings and tried to plead guilty in exchange for a life in prison without parole instead of a death sentence.
“My crime doesn’t define who I am. It defines a moment I deeply regret,” he said.
Johnson’s legal team told board members that Johnson has bipolar disorder, making him an “intense” person. Via video shown by his legal team, Johnson’s children talked about how he sometimes acted as a mediator between the kids and their mom from prison.
“I feel like he’s the person to talk to,” his son said in the video.
Tom Hird, one of Johnson’s federal public defenders, said Johnson had tremendous growth over the last 20 years after getting involved with an Indiana church. Church mentors said via video that Johnson is a different person now, and if the state executes Johnson now, they are killing a different person.
“Raymond is a real person, a real person overflowing with life,” Hird told board members.
Amie Ely, assistant attorney general for Oklahoma, told board members that Johnson admitted to killing Whitaker and her daughter because he didn’t want to return to prison. She said the murders were a culmination of attacks and threats often seen in domestic violence cases, a struggle Oklahoma has faced for quite some time.
Assistant Attorney General Jennifer Crabb told board members Johnson hasn’t changed while in prison and his argument that he has isn’t unique. Crabb said since Johnson was a juvenile, he has maintained church involvement while committing crimes. Even while in prison, Johnson was active in church and described as a “light” before he killed Whitaker and Kya, Crabb said.
Crabb told board members that there are two unsolved murders in Cleveland county and he has information on who the killer is but he won’t help police because of his loyalty to the gang, fears the killers will be sentenced to death and his belief he was mistreated for the manslaughter charge. The cases have been unsolved for 31 years, Crabb said.
Crabb told the board members Johnson is manipulative. She said the state doesn’t know how long Johnson tortured Whitaker, but they know she begged for her life and both she and Kya were alive when set on fire.
“This case is one that cries out for the death penalty,” Crabb said.
Johnson is scheduled for execution on May 14. He would be the second person Oklahoma executes this year if the state carries out the execution.
Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.
Ashlynd Baecht joined The Frontier in 2023 as a criminal justice reporter. Contact Ashlynd at Ashlynd@readfrontier.com
